Who Was Mauricio Garcia? Gunman Who Killed Eight in Texas Mall Massacre

A suspected gunman who killed eight people in a shooting at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas on Saturday has been identified as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia following police searches of two addresses in the state.

Police searched the home of Garcia's parents in northeast Dallas on Saturday night along with a location nearby where Garcia had been living and the Texas Department of Public Safety announced his identity on Sunday.

Garcia opened fire at the Allen Premium Outlets in Texas on Saturday afternoon, killing eight people and injuring at least seven others, before he was killed by an Allen Police Department officer who was at the mall on an unrelated call, according to police.

The suspect did not have a serious criminal record but investigators found that Garcia had a significant social media presence and may have had links to right-wing extremism, CNN reported on Sunday citing a senior law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.

Garcia reportedly served in the U.S. Army in 2008 but was removed due to mental health concerns, according to sources who spoke to ABC News and its local Dallas affiliate, WFAA.

During the shooting, Garcia was armed with an AR-15 style rifle and he was wearing tactical gear as well as a patch that read "RWDS" - which reportedly stands for "Right Wing Death Squad."

Nonetheless, police have not yet made any official statement about Garcia's motive, though investigators believe he acted alone.

Investigators also found five other guns inside Garcia's car, people familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post.

Garcia often wore what appeared to be a security guard's uniform while leaving for and returning from work, according to neighbors of his parents, and was living in a hotel in the Dallas area at the time of the shooting. He had been registered to vote in Texas since 2008.

He had been permitted to work as a security guard in Texas from April 2016 to April 2020 when his license expired. That information comes from the Texas Online Private Security database, which is maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety. It's not clear whether his license expired.

Garcia had received firearms proficiency training as part of his work as a security officer, according to that database. He also undertook separate firearms training in 2018.

The suspected gunman had reportedly lived at his parent's home until a few months ago and FBI agents removed three to four boxes from that home on Saturday, according to neighbors who spoke to CBS News.

Some of Garcia's neighbors also told news outlets that he mainly kept to himself and that they didn't know him very well.

"He just seemed to be aloof, kind of disconnected. But he wasn't threatening," Kevin Todd told The Washington Post. Todd lives down the street from Garcia.

Newsweek has reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety via email for further comment.

Update 5/8/23, 10:08 a.m. ET: This story was updated with reports that Mauricio Garcia served in the U.S. Army.